20 April 2012

The Raid: Redemption

The Best ACTION Movie in Years.

There are action movies. Then, there are ACTION movies. There are plenty of the former, but very few of the latter. When you think of a genre defining action film, what do you think of? Die Hard? Enter the Dragon? The Matrix? Well, you can add The Raid: Redemption to that list.

Re-titled from just The Raid when distributed in the U.S. by Sony Pictures Classic, Gareth Evan’s Indonesian action flick played the film festival circuit last autumn. The trailer debuted around then, too. If that isn’t enough to make you want to see it, I don’t know what else to do but sing its praises. The Raid: Redemption finally opened in theaters here in the StL last Friday.

The Raid follows a SWAT team as they attempt to takedown the crime lord Tama (Ray Sahetapy), who lives at the top of his own slum. The police unit of twenty officers is lead by Jaka (Joe Taslim). His plan is simple: Infiltrate the dangerous building silently. Take out spotters. Work their way to the top floor by floor until they reach Tama. Why is it so dangerous? The inhabitants of the apartment building are mostly criminals that have been given a haven by Tama.

The assault starts off smooth. The SWAT team arrives unnoticed. They make a quiet clean approach. They begin their ascent of the dilapidated building. Then, the inevitable happens. They are found out. Now, this should-be-condemned structure becomes a house of nightmares for the officers. Tama makes an announcement over the house intercom. Anyone that kills an officer will live rent free for life. This is when all Hell breaks loose. As this happens, Jaka discovers that their mission is not sanctioned, and back-up is not coming. Lieutenant Wahyu (Pierre Gruno) has a past with Tama, and he ordered this ill-fated raid that turns into a massacre.

Apparently, there is no credit check to live in this building. The only requirements seem to be: You must own a machete and/or an assault rifle and know the basics of the Indonesian martial art of silat. The officers are hunted and have to use their brains to survive. A rookie cop Rama (Iko Uwais) starts to emerge as a leader as his comrades are killed.

The character development is nonexistent, but that doesn’t matter. It is not necessary to get to know these characters because they perish so quickly. The story is simple, the characters are simpler. What is not simple is the action. As I have mentioned, this is genre defining. Evans puts you in the middle of it with long uncut shots. Much like I mentioned in my Haywire review, instead of the shot of the attack. Cut. Shot of the reaction. Cut. Evans lets it roll for seconds on end. And the length of the overall action sequence is longer than most. The action is not limited to hand-to-hand combat. The early scenes have plenty of gunplay and explosions to satiate that appetite. The melee of action just keeps coming.

The Raid offers a musical score by Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park and Fort Minor. The music helps to set the pace of the film while being original and fun. Shinoda has a ways to go before he reaches the level of composing of fellow rock artist and Academy Award winner Trent Reznor.

My only real complaint about The Raid: Redemption is the forced backstory and convoluted plot that is thrown in at the end. It just did not need to be. Keeping it simple worked. I don’t understand the necessity to throw in a generic storyline at the end.
The Raid: Redemption delivers on every level that an action film should. It is sitting high at 83% on Rottentomatoes. It stood at 100% for a long time, but once that first critic turned in a negative review, a few others followed suit. As a warning, the actors speak Indonesian. But don’t worry you lazy haters of reading subtitles, Sony Pictures has greenlit a US remake. I would hate to think that Americans could just get behind a foreign film. The Raid also has had a sequel in the works and the possibility of a whole trilogy. I cannot stress enough, if you have the opportunity to see this film, DO IT!

Who is the Hairy Man?

I recently got a position with insideSTL.com as a movie critic. I will be posting on there once a week and here the rest of the time. I plan to post links between the sites to increase cross traffic. That means I should post 1 new review a week, at least!